Vehicle wheel assemblies of the live spindle type are currently known to those skilled in the art of vehicle wheel assembly design. U.S. Pat. No. 4,010,986 shows a typical live spindle design in which the spindle is journaled or mounted for rotation in a bore of a mounting component, such as a non-rotating hub, attached to the vehicle. Bearings are interposed between the hub and the spindle. A drive axle is inserted through a central bore or aperture in the spindle. Generally the drive axle is threaded on one end and has a bearing retaining flange adjacent the opposite end and a nut on the threaded end is torqued down sufficiently to maintain the assembled components in the desired relationship and the axle is substantially rigidly affixed to the spindle so that the spindle and axle must rotate together at all times and no axial movement of the axle relative to the spindle is allowed. These typical prior art wheel assemblies of the live spindle type do not permit selective engagement or disengagement of the axle from the spindle and do not permit the use of torque responsive hub clutches for automatically engaging or disengaging the axle from the spindle to be selectively free wheeling or driven relative to the axle.